denim

1[uncountable]a type of strong cotton cloth that is usually blue and is used for making clothes, especially jeansa denim jacketFrom the French serge de Nîmes, meaning ‘serge (= a type of cloth) from the town of Nîmes’.CulturejeansJeans were first made in the US. They are now worn all over the world. Jeans were created during the Gold Rush in the 1840s and 1850s, when many people went to the western US to search for gold. Miners often lived in tents made out of a strong fabric and, because they needed strong clothes, they began to wear trousers made from the same fabric. Many jeans were sold by Levi Strauss, who had a store in California, and today Levi's are among the most famous jeans.Traditionally, jeans are blue (and are then also called blue jeans), but the fabric they are made of, denim, comes in many colours. Black jeans, and stonewashed jeans that are made from denim which has been washed until it becomes lighter and softer, are also made. Styles include bell-bottoms, flares and bootleg cut, which are halfway between straight and flared, but straight-leg is most popular as a universal style and worn by both men and women. Designer jeans are sold by top fashion designers.For a long time jeans were worn only for physical work, but in the 1960s society changed and young people began to question traditional attitudes to dress. Jeans were a symbol of these changes and became very popular. Now, people of any age wear jeans because they are comfortable, practical and relatively cheap. They can be made more or less formal, depending on what is worn with them, but some restaurants and wine bars do not allow in people who are wearing jeans, and some companies do not like their staff to wear jeans for work.

2denims[plural](old-fashioned)trousers/pants made of denimsynonymjeans